A.M. Roundup: New York is ‘functionally bankrupt’

Good morning! Don’t drive anywhere if you don’t have to — it’s messy out there. Luckily I’m within walking distance of the Capitol, because my car is happily stowed in the garage. If you need some ad hoc snow shoes, however, you can make them from these headlines…

“New York is at a crossroads, and we must seize this opportunity, make hard choices and set our state on a new path toward prosperity,” Cuomo said. “We simply cannot afford to keep spending at our current rate…New York state must face economic reality.” (Post-Standard)

Rick and Casey: In a 42-minute address at The Egg that was part PowerPoint lecture and part exhortation, Cuomo called the state’s long-standing budget process “a special-interest protection program” because of the way it obscures the growth in spending on programs such as Medicaid and education.//”How anybody expected to pay for a 13 percent increase in Medicaid is beyond me,” Cuomo said of the most recent built-in increases driving the $53 billion-plus program. (TU)

Cuomo heated the budget potato, then tossed it to legislators. His tactics — having task forces deal with specific cuts, blasting increases set in “permanent law” — are part of a sophisticated political strategy. (TU)

Fred LeBrun: That Gov. Cuomo. He is one slick politician, and I do mean that in a good way. What a performance he gave us Tuesday.//Here I was convinced that with his first budget message, there was no way he could wiggle out of finally giving us a whole lot of unpleasant specifics related to his plans for massively reducing state government. But wiggle out of it he most certainly did, and quite elegantly. (TU)

Dan Janison: But it also became clear Tuesday even to some of those hallway regulars that Cuomo was talking past the players before him – and working to build public leverage for his upcoming fiscal negotiations with the State Legislature.//Assisted by aides he brought from the attorney general’s office, Cuomo drew on the experience of his last elected job, in which he made cases against private-sector scams.//”Where Albany meets Enron ,” Cuomo said of the state’s current budgeting system. “In Albany, a budget cut is defined as anything less than anticipated growth.” (Newsday)

Jacob Gershman: But in many ways, Mr. Cuomo’s budget was a working draft. “It’s not a document that could actually be passed. It’s a first step,” said Carol Kellermann, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group. (WSJ)